I know, I know… it is pretty easy for me to tell you how to spend your hard earned money. But, it is really pretty easy to buy satellite TV, especially if you are a “newbie” and haven’t had satellite TV before, but there are just one or two things you need to bear in mind to make sure that you get the best, absolutely the best deal for your family.

If you compare your current cable TV bill, with the same channels for satellite TV (dominantly DirectTV and Dish Network), you will find that satellite is cheaper. I did and I had Cox cable for over 20 years.

All companies have a “target audience” where they direct their marketing, and guess what, the “target audience” for satellite TV is just about everybody. All satellite TV companies will have special offers and deals to entice you in, so you need to step back, look carefully and decide which deal suits your needs the best.

Of course, the first place to look is online (isn’t that the first place you look for everything these days, except for “where did I leave my shoes?” type questions), and once you’ve established the major contenders – notably Dish Network and DirecTV, you need to speak to their customer service representatives. Yes, give them a call or call in to a store and find out exactly what they can do for you. Sometimes you will be influenced by the area in which you live, as to which provider can offer the best service.

Of course, with their being only two major satellite tv providers they tend to keep their prices on a similar level when you are selecting which channels you want to watch, this can make the decision quite tricky. One way to choose is by how much you will have to pay for the equipment in the first place, sometimes you actually get a satellite TV system when you buy a new TV, with a set amount of time thrown in for free, but if you don’t need a new TV, just a satellite TV system this won’t be of any interest to you, anyway, sometimes if you buy the satellite tv equipment you still get a few months free of charge, see how they like to draw you in and whamm! they’ve got you.

The trick is to make sure that you get drawn in and “got” by the best satellite TV provider for your needs at the best possible ongoing price. It’s no use having a couple of free months if you spend the next 10 months of the year paying twice as much as you needed to is it?

Decide exactly which channel package your family will watch, there is really no point in paying for anything which you won’t use, and once you’ve decided which is the best for you, totalled the cost of purchasing for the equipment and the monthly fees, then you should be able to see just which provider can give you the best deal.

It’s a good idea to monitor which channels you actually do enjoy watching for the first few months of having your new satellite TV system – you might be surprised at how many of those channels you pay for “just in case” are never actually watched at all.